Founding

In its earliest stages of formation in June 1974, NSI was first
known as the "National Space Association", but was renamed from
"Association" to "Institute" in April 1975. Von Braun was the NSI's
first president, but shortly became chairman, with journalist and
former ABC-TV20/20 host Hugh
Downs as president. Charles C. Hewitt was the first executive
director.

Downs later recalled the beginning of the organization:

At the first annual meeting of the organization, in July 1975, von
Braun said:

Toward the end of 1975, von Braun commented on the state of the
general public's interest in the space program.

Relationship with Omni magazine

After some years of publishing a newsletter that became known as
I'NSIght, the Institute entered into an
arrangement with the publishers ofOmnimagazine whereby all members except
life members would receive that magazine as part of their
membership.Omni editor Ben Bova joined the NSI board, then became vice
president and finally succeeded Downs as president.He continued as president after the Omni
arrangement was discontinued and an agreement was made with
Palmer Publications to make their monthly general space interest
magazine Space World the official NSI member
magazine.

When von Braun died in June 1977, Hugh Downs became Chairman of the
Board and, after a time, Ben Bova assumed the presidency. After
Hewitt departed in 1980, Courtney Stadd served for a period as
General Manager. The Institute was then led until 1984 by executive
director Dr. Mark R. Chartrand, followed by Dr. Glen P.Wilson.

Merger

Under Bova and Wilson, the arrangements for merger with the
L5 Society were concluded, and the name
change to National Space
Society was announced in advance of the merger, with vague
explanations to the members. Since the merger, it has been claimed
that the name change took place upon the merger, but the historical
record to the contrary is clear. Following the merger, Wilson was
succeeded by his assistant, Lori Garver,
who became executive director of the newly formed National Space Society. The merged
organization has continued to use the NSS name and logo after a
joint membership vote was taken in 1987 to determine whether or not
to change it to the "Space Frontier Society."

A more complete history of the National Space Institute is
contained in a series of articles published in the
November/December 1994 issue of Ad Astra, the magazine of the
NSS.